In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Denise Rose Hansen’s novel Blue Sunset is a lyrical debut both atmospheric and immersive.
Kirkus wrote of the book:
“Hansen’s controlled, poetic prose shines brighter and brighter as Maja’s life and past come fully into view. The quiet but moving climax occurs in a gorgeous, wrenching scene set at the British Library, illuminating a series of parallel motifs and connections between herself and, surprisingly, Percy and Mary Shelley. A lush, atmospheric novella brimming with poetry, pain, and desire.”
In her own words, here is Denise Rose Hansen’s Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel Blue Sunset:
What is the sound of longing? Of taking a leap, which may look more like a fall? The music gathered here was playing in the background at some point when I wrote Blue Sunset. Much of it is instrumental, as too many words are too many words.
The set begins with È stata la mano di Dio by The Fulcanelli Dull Jazz Quartet, named after the Sorrentino film (and Maradona’s controversial handled goal against England in the 1986 World Cup). The nostalgia, the antique elevator energy, the synths, the layered simplicity – that’s quite like the kitsch and longing mood I wanted to condense in the book.
The guiding star here is the 1980s, which is pure melancholia for me, perhaps because I only spent four months in that decade. From the Irish band Operating Theatre – which really was set up as a hybrid theatre company in 1980 – to Yasuaki Shimizu’s perfect 1982 album Kakashi; from vintage-sounding Danish power punk by Iceage to absolutely essential Alice Coltrane, the session ends with the moody Peri Banu vid sjön by Swedish psychedelic ensemble Dungen. It opens their album Häxan, but I always hear it more as a closing.
1
È stata la mano di Dio
The Fulcanelli Dull Jazz Quartet
2
Spring Is Coming with a Strawberry in the Mouth
Operating Theatre
3
海の上から
Yasuaki Shimizu
4
Why Am I Alive Now?
Anohni
5
Blue Nile
Alice Coltrane
6
Spring Rounds from Rite of Spring
Alice Coltrane
7
Dear Saint Cecilia
Ice Age
8
Rio Babilônia
Jorge Ben Tor
9
No boca do sol
Arthur Verocai
10
Chala Vahi Des
Shye Ben Tzur
11
Orpheus
Ronald Langestraat
12
I’ll Take Care of You
Gil Scott-Heron and Makaya McCraven
13
Trois couleurs: Bleu: Song for the Unification of Europe
Zbigniew Preisner
14
Continuum 1
Nala Sinephro
15
Peri Banu vid sjön
Dungen
Denise Rose Hansen is a Danish writer and editor who lives in London. The founder of Lolli Editions, she is now an editor at Penguin where she publishes the likes of Shahrnush Parsipur, Ágota Kristóf, and Anne Serre.